


To Making It Count

by tywinning



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Incest, Titanic AU, Twincest
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-04-20
Updated: 2012-04-20
Packaged: 2017-11-03 23:51:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/387344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tywinning/pseuds/tywinning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cersei and Jaime Lannister ran away to Europe to escape their father's plans for them, but it wasn't far enough. Now Tywin Lannister is dragging them home. On the Titanic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Leaving Port

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published on tumblr [here.](http://tywinning.tumblr.com/tagged/lannister+titanic+AU)

“ _Look at her. Titanic!_ ” Tywin Lannister had called out to us, that day in April 1912, with more fatherly pride than he had ever shown me. The ship was the daughter he had truly wanted. One born not of my mother’s body, but of my father’s fortune. 

And this favored child was to carry us back to America in chains. 

Our whole lives were planned for us, as if we had already lived them. Jaime would give up the life of film-making he had tasted in Vienna, and instead be groomed to replace our father at Lannister Oil someday. Meanwhile, I was to play the blushing bride and become the dutiful wife of Robert Baratheon. His senate seat would smooth all of father’s less, shall we say, genteel transactions.

Father even had Robert’s bribe in hand, in the guise of my wedding gift: a diamond. It wasn’t just any diamond, I will grant my father that much. “This is a gift for royalty,” my father had said, lifting the lid with a showman’s flourish to reveal the necklace. Tywin Lannister always did think himself a king, and me his princess. The diamond had once belonged to an Indian prince. 56 carats that sparkled as red as blood. It even had a name.

The day Jaime first saw it in Paris, he whispered to me that we finally knew how cold and hard our father’s heart truly was. The diamond was cut in the shape of a heart, you see. “The Lion’s Heart.” It sounds beautiful, doesn’t it? You might even call it priceless.

But it wasn’t. It was the heavy collar that Father had placed around my neck, and Jaime’s too. We cried out against the injustice of it, alone together in the dark. Unable to claw at the walls of my cage, I clawed deep furrows into my brother’s back. The entirety of our European tour, Jaime watched Robert, the way I once saw a half-tame lion in a circus watch the ringmaster and his whip. The ringmaster was smart enough never to put the whip down, though. Robert wasn’t, and more than once I prayed that Jaime would get his chance. 

My brother never did, though. That was how we found ourselves on the South Hampton docks, gazing up at our new cage of steel that our father, with hubris too great for a mortal man, had named Titanic and declared unsinkable. “God himself could not sink this ship,” he was so fond of saying.

“Shall we make a run for it, sweet sister?” Jaime had said at the foot of the gangway. Father and Robert were already half way up. Robert boasted loudly, as if he were responsible for the ship’s creation. Father merely smiled quietly and continued to herd his prey on to the ship. Just that smile was enough for me to know the depth of my Father’s pleasure. I had never expected to see it again after Mother’s death. Tywin Lannister never even glanced behind him to ensure that we followed. Why would he? The invisible leashes he had attached to our collars were stronger than that dreadful diamond, locked away in the safe the porter was carrying to our parlor suite. 

“And where would we run to, dear brother, that is beyond our father’s reach? Do you already forget that we ran away to Vienna and that was not far enough?” I sighed wearily and took his proffered arm. The way he squeezed my hand in sympathy gave me the strength I needed to mount the steps to Hell. “God would have to stretch out his hand and grant us a miracle to save us now.”

How little had we known.

Titanic was our miracle.

She saved us.

She set us free.


	2. Playing All Hearts

The Titanic was everything Father promised.

Cherry woodwork. Satin upholstery. Marble floors. Silk sheets. Spode china.

All the best that money could buy, all brand new.

 _Titanic is more a virgin than I am, Father_ , Cersei thought bitterly, her eyes boring holes into her father’s back. Tywin Lannister remained oblivious, letting his hand trail along the railing of the Grand Staircase. _Is that why you love her so much? Even though you commanded me to “keep Robert happy until the wedding,” as you so delicately put it? What would you say if you knew your golden son and I have fucked each other more than I will ever “please” Robert? What then, Father?_

“Do you intend to kill him?” Jaime asked softly. “Or fall at his feet?”

Cersei simply glared at her brother. Jaime took the opportunity to straighten the red diamond around her neck. Suddenly he gripped it and pulled for a moment, painfully. She didn’t understand why she felt such disappointment when the clasp held fast.

“Because if it’s the former you have in mind, I could suggest a much better choice than Father.” Jaime watched Robert pass into the First Class Dining Room just ahead of them. His green eyes glowed with hatred and jealousy.

“As much as I would enjoy that, Jaime, somehow I doubt such sport is considered civilized for our set. At least not before dinner.”

“A pity.” Jaime pulled out a chair for Cersei to sit between her fiancé and their father. Jaime took a seat opposite her, as far from Father and Robert as possible while still at the same table.

“We’ll be having the red, not the white,” Tywin told the waiter. “And make sure it’s the ’82. Now, what’s a pity, Jaime?” Father asked.

“Nothing, Father.”

“I’ll tell you what’s a pity, Tywin!” Robert butted in. “Your boy can’t beat either of us at poker! If he didn’t have Lannister Oil bankrolling him, I would own his ass by now.”

Jaime stared down at his plate and ran his thumb down the edge of his dinner knife.

Cersei turned to Robert and smiled sweetly. “And if you didn’t have Lannister Oil bankrolling  _you_ , darling-”

“It’s nothing more than a friendly game, Robert,” Tywin interjected smoothly, pressing his hand to the back of Cersei’s neck. “I wasn’t even aware we were counting.”

“Why, Father!” Cersei spoke despite the uncomfortable pressure. “You manage to surprise me every day. And here I thought we were always counting.”

Before their father had a chance to respond, Jaime raised his wine glass in a toast. “To making it count!” He threw his head back and emptied his glass. Cersei was the first to join him. After a moment of awkward silence, the rest of the table raised their glasses and echoed them.

The rest of the meal was less eventful. Father deftly steered the conversation to the usual mindless chatter. She had little appetite, and Jaime seemed to have even less. Robert pinched her thigh at one point, and Cersei smiled at him instead of screaming. Jaime, sullen and silent across from her, was the only one who even cared. She liked to look at her brother and count in his eyes all the times he imagined Robert’s death.

After dessert, Tywin rose. “Gentlemen, join me for a brandy? Jaime, I imagine you’ll be dealt a better hand tonight.”

“I fear I’m already too inebriated even to tell the difference between a King and a Joker tonight, Father. I would just play all Hearts like last time, and cost you more money than you would like by morning. My apologies.” Jaime stood stiffly and departed before Father had a chance to argue. Tywin looked after his son in disappointment.

 _I can play, Father!_ Cersei wanted to cry out. _Jaime taught me how, and now I win every time._ The revelation would only heighten her father’s disappointment, though, so she merely watched as he and Robert and all the other gentlemen made their way to the Smoking Room. Cards and cigars and brandy weren’t suitable for well-bred ladies.

That was how Cersei found herself alone, among a crowd of women discussing beaus and cotillions and fashions – an endless list of things that held no meaning for her. She fled.

“What took you so long?” Jaime asked, leaning against the carving of winged Cupid at the foot of the staircase.

Cersei walked past as if she hadn’t heard and made her way up the stairs. _I wanted to join Father just as much as I wanted to join you. But he wouldn’t have me._  

Jaime followed, a few steps behind her, and they stole away together into the night.


	3. Sunday Prayer

In church Sunday morning, Jaime and Cersei stood behind their father and Robert. They shared a hymnal between them, Cersei holding it with her right hand, Jaime with his left.  When Captain Smith asked the congregation to sing “Nearer, My God, To Thee,” Jaime refused. He sang his own hymn, ever so softly.

“ _E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me, still all my song shall be, nearer, my love, to thee, nearer, my love, to thee.”_ Cersei longed to join him, to raise her voice high above them all, and Robert, Father, God himself be damned. “ _Nearer, my love, to th- OW!”_ She slammed the heel of her shoe down on Jaime’s foot instead.

Tywin turned and looked at them coolly, not saying a word. His pale green eyes said everything. _I thought the two of you were old enough to behave in church, at least. I thought for once you wouldn’t disappoint me. I was wrong, once again._  

Cersei felt ashamed, and wanted to beg her father’s forgiveness, to promise him that she would do better. But she wasn’t even permitted that. She suffered through the rest of the service in silence.

That afternoon, Thomas Andrews, the shipbuilder, gave them a tour of Titanic. Tywin, as usual, was proud of his new steel daughter.

“Why doesn’t he just marry _Titanic_ to Robert?” Jaime asked sullenly. “She’s big enough for the oaf. The marriage would be a happy one.” She looked at Robert, half-drunk on Sunday and grinning like an idiot, and found herself in agreement.

As they walked along the boat deck, Cersei finally found something she could say to Tywin Lannister. She smiled.

“Father! Mr. Andrews may have built you the biggest ship in the world, but he cheated you in one respect!”

“And what is that?” Tywin's pale eyes flicked between her and Andrews.

“I did the sum in my head. With the number of lifeboats times the capacity Andrews mentioned... There aren’t enough for everyone aboard,” she finished proudly, waiting for her father to unleash his wrath on the shipbuilder.

“I’m well aware of the number of lifeboats, Cersei. They’re a waste of money and deck space as it is, on an unsinkable ship.” Tywin turned and continued on, never noticing the way Cersei wilted under his words.

Cersei began to follow after, but Jaime pulled her aside. “Why do you try so hard for him? Just stop. It’s not worth it.”

Cersei looked into her brother’s green eyes, mirrors of her own. But how could she explain? Everything was handed to Jaime, so he didn’t think any of it worth having. Nothing was handed to her, so she fought for it all. Even the worthless scraps. Before she could find the words, though, Jaime was already speaking again.

“You’re worth more to me than you will ever be to Father, than you could ever possibly be to Robert. You mean more to me than anyone else in this world.”

Cersei knew where this was going, and she glanced around fearfully, but no one else was around. “Jaime, no. Don’t ask me. No no no-”

“Just – I just want to say it, alright. Father doesn’t care what we want. You don’t want to marry Robert. I don’t want to run the company. Well, Father can go fuck himself. I’ll tell him that to his face tonight at dinner, if only you’ll let me.” Jaime took a steadying breath, and got down on one knee. Dread, hopelessness, anger, and, worst of all, a terrible longing all went to war in the pit of her stomach. Jaime took her left hand and gently removed Robert’s diamond from her finger. He had no ring to offer in its place, and she loved him all the more because of it. He looked up at her so earnestly. “I love you, Cersei. Marry me. Be my wife.”

“ _Jaime_...” She couldn’t say anything she wanted to say. Instead she pulled her hand away roughly and snatched the ring back. Her eyes were wet as she ran after her father and her fiancé, shoving the ring back on her finger. Jaime didn’t follow.

Cersei smiled through her despair as she took Robert’s arm. He smelled of whiskey, and his hand was clammy, where Jaime’s had been dry.

“Where is your brother?” Tywin asked. “I wanted him to see the rest of the ship with us.”

_Always Jaime. Always your golden son. And now your new golden daughter._ For a moment, Cersei was happy she had left Jaime dejected on the floor. And still, Cersei gave her father the answer she knew would please. “He retired to the Smoking Room. He said if he wanted any chance of beating you at cards tonight, he needed to start early.”

The corners of his mouth turned up slightly at her words, and for the briefest moment she was happy she had pleased him. Then she became so overwhelmed with hatred at her own happiness that she stopped and put her hand over her eyes.

“Are you well, Princess?” It was his first show of concern for her the whole trip.

“I’m fine,” Cersei said through gritted teeth.

“You should go back to our rooms and rest before dinner.”

“Yes, Father,” she answered obediently, turning away from them and walking back in the direction of their suite. She twisted at her engagement ring as she went. Jaime had removed it so easily. She thought of her father’s necklace too, locked away in a safe in the rooms she was going to. Abruptly she turned and started in a different direction.

_Father’s necklace and Robert’s ring. All just another part of this cage I’m trapped in._

Only one other person understood. And Cersei had pushed him away.

So she walked, the sun casting a longer and longer shadow behind her. She had no destination. She just kept walking. A lioness pacing at the bars of her cage.

She wasn’t surprised when she found Jaime. They were twins, and the same cage enclosed them.

He stood at the bow of the ship, right at its apex, his back to her. One foot was up on the rail as he leaned against it, and the wind blew through his golden hair. He had never looked more beautiful to her.

As if sensing her presence, Jaime turned and looked at his sister expectantly.

“Hello, Jaime.” Cersei spread her hands, the wind whipping her dress around her legs. She didn’t know what to say.

But Jaime was the only person she didn’t need to say anything to. “Come here, Cersei.” She was already going to him before he spoke the words, and he drank her in, like a man dying of thirst.

“Cersei, you won’t let me open our cage forever, so-”

“Jaime, I can’t-”

“-so give me just one moment. One moment. It’s all I ask.”

She could only nod.

“Close your eyes.” She did, and he pressed her gently against the rail, his hands encircling her tiny waist. “Step up.” Cersei did so without hesitation. She trusted Jaime completely, and she knew no fear. He stepped up too, pressing against her, and whispered in her ear, “Alright. Now open your eyes.”

Cersei gasped.

The cage was gone.

It was as if there was no ship beneath them at all. All she saw was the Atlantic, a hammered golden shield in the light of the setting sun. It stretched out endlessly before her. There were no walls, no bars. Only open water, forever, everywhere she looked. She jerked the diamond ring from her finger and threw it away over the side, not caring in that moment what anyone would ask. Robert, her father, everyone was gone. She and Jaime were the only people left in this world.

“I’m free.”

She took a deep breath, as if for the first time in years.

“Jaime, we’re free.” Jaime’s laughter was sweet in her ear. He leaned forward and pressed his cheek against hers. She raised her voice high, as she had longed to do that morning, to worship the only gods she believed in. “ _Still all my song shall be, nearer, my love, to thee; nearer, my love, to thee.”_

As the sky began to darken and the first stars appeared, Jaime joined her, and their voices blended into one. “ _Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down, darkness be over me, my rest a stone; yet in my dreams I'd be nearer, my love, to thee_ …”

While they sang, the sun set on Titanic for the last time.

The ship hit a rough wave. Unthinkingly, Cersei’s hands went to the rail, and suddenly the cage was back. She twisted to look at Jaime, tears in her eyes. “Is this all we’ll ever have, Jaime? Stolen moments in the darkness, while we pretend to live some other man’s dreams? Will I ever be more than just some man’s wife? Will my life ever count for something?”

Jaime wrapped his arms around her, and she turned further, tilting her head back until she found his mouth with hers, leaning into him in surrender. Her twin was the only one to which she _could_ surrender. They kissed. It began as something slow and sad, and grew into something desperate.

 “If you were my wife, Cersei, I would never hold you back.”

“I know.” _That’s why I love you_. “Be my husband, Jaime. Just for tonight.” It was all she could give him.

She saw in his eyes that he didn’t understand. He believed this was the beginning of what he had always wanted. She let him think it. It was dark, and the harsh light of dawn was hours and lifetimes away.

Jaime helped her down, and offered her his arm. She took it, and together they walked back inside. They convinced themselves that dining in one of the little cafés was their choice, and not because their father and Robert would be in the First Class Dining Room. They ate from a single plate. Instead of discretely running her foot up and down the inside of Jaime’s leg, she let him take her hand above the table. He traced the lines of her palm, and spoke with all the confidence of a carnival charlatan. “This line here means you will marry the love of your life. And this one – it means you will have three beautiful children together. And – oh my! This is quite unusual. I don’t see this very often.” Jaime just smiled, teasing her.

“What?” Cersei asked, playing along. “Tell me. I insist.”

 “Do you see this long line here?” He ran his finger over it slowly, making her shiver. “This one,” Jaime said softly. “It means you will get exactly what your heart desires.”

Cersei clenched her fist and pulled her hand back. Some games were too cruel to play, even in jest. “Take me back to our rooms, Jaime.”

“As the lady wishes.” Jaime stood and bowed to her. He pulled her chair out and offered her his hand as she rose.

When they stood alone in their parlor, Cersei insisted he turn on every light. “In all the rooms, Jaime. Every light. Make it as bright as the sun.” When Jaime was finished, Cersei started to lead him to her bedroom.

“No.”

Cersei didn’t understand.

“I don’t want you in that bed you’ve shared with Robert. I want you right here. As if I’ve just carried you over the threshold after our wedding, and I couldn’t wait any longer.”

Cersei arched an eyebrow. “Shall I have the steward fetch a wedding gown, so you can rip it off me?”

“No,” he smiled. “This dress will do just fine.” He tore the red fabric down the front, and the elaborate beadwork came loose and spilled to the floor.

“You’re a fool, Jaime,” Cersei breathed into his ear as she attacked his shirt, buttons flying everywhere. “A beautiful golden fool.”

He turned her away from him and began to unlace her corset, kissing her neck, her shoulders, her back as he worked. “But I’m _your_ fool, sweet sister.”

“I don’t know whether that makes me want to laugh or to cry.”

“A bit of both, I would imagine,” he sounded serious for once. “ _You’re_ my fool, after all.”

When he finished with the corset, she pulled it off and let it fall to the floor, starting on the tiny pearl buttons of her camisole. “I’m hardly a fool.”

Jaime only laughed and tried to come around to face her.

She turned to keep her back to him. “Aren’t virgin brides supposed to be shy? Turn around. Give me a moment.” She looked over her shoulder at him to make sure he wasn’t looking. Admiring the muscles in his arms made her forget herself for a moment.

“If husbands are made to wait like this, I would rather go back to being your brother.”

“The two are one and the same. Both must wait.” The step-in camisole joined her corset on the floor. She kicked off her shoes and put a foot up on the divan to unfasten her garters.

Jaime whistled his approval.

“If you look again before I give you permission, dear brother, I’ll claw your eyes out.”

“I love you too, sweet sister.”

Cersei stood nude at last. She pulled the combs from her hair, and tossed them down. One of them shattered on the floor, but she didn’t even give it a glance. She shook her head, and her hair cascaded down her back in a golden waterfall.

_Now where?_ Her eyes fell on the divan. She lay down on it, positioning herself, trying to imagine how he would see her.

“You may look now.”

Jaime’s breath caught. The surprise on his face was exactly what she wanted. It was as if he were seeing her for the first time, all over again.

“Well? Shouldn’t you be … initiating something? You’re playing the worldly husband. I’m merely the blushing b-”

Jaime’s mouth was pressed down hard over hers before she could finish, one hand tangled in her hair, the other roaming her ivory skin as if it were uncharted territory to him. His hands were rougher than she expected, making her heart pound. Jaime’s mouth moved to the side of her neck, biting hard enough to leave a mark. Cersei could feel him, erect against her thigh. She reached down to grab him, to guide him into her, but he moved to pin her hands above her head instead.

“I thought blushing brides weren’t supposed to be so eager,” he growled. He was enjoying drawing this out, making her wait as she had done to him.

“Just fuck me, Jaime.” She needed him inside her, needed to feel whole, as only he could make her feel.

“No.” He moved his face directly above hers, and she looked into his eyes. “Robert fucked you. I’m going to worship you.”

He moved his mouth down to her breasts, teasing a nipple with his tongue. She writhed underneath him, enough that neither noticed the great ship shuddering and coming to a halt beneath them. Cersei’s breath came out in moans. After an eternity, his mouth trailed lower, and he had to let go of her hands. She tangled them in his hair and tried to push his head lower. He wouldn’t be forced, though. “I feel much more devout like this, don’t you? This is how I intend to spend all my Sundays, love.”

“ _Pleeease_ , _Jaime_.”

Cersei cried out and arched her back as he finally buried his face between her legs. She bit her knuckle at the long delayed pleasure of it, and urged him on with her other hand.

_“Yes yes there Jaime I want you there I want you there forever yes Jaime Jaime Jaime!”_

That was how Robert found them: his future brother-in-law buried in his fiancé’s cunt, his future bride calling out her brother's name in ecstasy.


End file.
